Faux Winter Meetings: Sergio Romo to the Astros, Next Move

As we announced a couple of days ago, we placed an offer to attract the services of Sergio Romo to be the closer of the Houston Astros. Again, we went in a little high, but the deal has become official, and Romo is now a (fake) member of the Astros organization. The deal we proposed was 2 years at $15M, with a player option for the third year at $8M.

With this deal being completed, that leaves us with $12.5M to spend. Before we go in to how to spend it, we also have acquired Jordan Walden from the faux Braves, so the bullpen is shaping up nicely. We could go after another bullpen arm, or we can wing it with Chad Qualls. We could also go after Ryan Cook from the A’s (I am also running the A’s team, so I have a little influence) but will not make that deal unless there is some support for it.

The A’s could use some middle infield help, but have a solid bullpen. Cook had a down year in 2014, posting a 3.42 ERA. His career average is a 2.77, so it could be the time to buy low on Cook, who will likely only to command $1.3M through arbitration. He’s a low-cost option that could be a solid seventh or eighth inning solution.

Since the A’s like young, controllable players, Joe Sclafani could be a trade target of theirs. Would this be acceptable to you guys?

Or should we address another issue? Left field and third base seem to be the biggest problem areas heading in to 2015. Some will say that shortstop is an issue as well, but with the amount of money we have, I’d like to let it ride with Marwin Gonzalez. The same could also be said for Jake Marisnick, who hit .272 in his time in Houston, and is still just 23 years old.

So that leads us to third base. Again, the A’s could be in play, with Josh Donaldson being an MVP caliber player that could potentially be moved. However, he will likely command a lot in return. Have a deal to acquire Donaldson? Let us know!

Pablo Sandoval and Chase Headley are already off of the market, so the trade route seems like our only option. Let us know what you think we should do next!